Ford has announced that the official EPA fuel efficiency numbers are in for its new midsize 2013 Fusion Hybrid. The Fusion Hybrid is now the most fuel-efficient midsize sedan in the country with an EPA rating of 47 mpg in the city, 47 mpg on the highway, and 47 mpg combined.

Those numbers top the Toyota Camry Hybrid by eight mpg on the highway and 4 mpg in the city. Ford continues to utilize efficient gasoline engines, electric motors, and lithium-ion batteries to allow its hybrid vehicles to achieve the same fuel efficiency on the highway as they're able to achieve in the city.

“The new Fusion is part of our plan to offer vehicles with the very best quality, fuel efficiency, safety, smart design and value,” says Alan Mulally, Ford president and CEO. “We are absolutely committed to class-leading fuel efficiency as a reason to buy Ford vehicles, with customers able to choose the fuel-efficient powertrain that best fits their lifestyle.”

The 2013 Fusion Hybrid is capable of traveling up to 62 mph on electricity alone. The car also has Active Grill Shutters to make the car more aerodynamic at highway speeds to help improve fuel efficiency. The hybrid also has an underbody with an aerodynamically designed panel to help improve fuel efficiency even further.

“Fusion is a driver’s car,” said Raj Nair, group vice president of Product Development. “We have carefully tuned this car to reward the driving expert and flatter the novice.”

Ford will offer four different versions of the 2013 Fusion. The vehicle will be offered with a 1.6-liter EcoBoost engine rated for 29 mpg combined. A two-liter EcoBoost engine is available with 26 mpg combined. The 2.5-liter version of the vehicle is rated for 26 mpg combined. The plug-in hybrid version of the Fusion, called the Energi is rated for over 100 MPGe.

Very logical. As supply increases and demand decreases oil companies have to jack up the price at the pumps to continue to make the same or higher profits. Ever notice how you and everyone else does your part to use less electricity, less water, less gas at the pumps, prices continue to rise. In the past with real competition, your argument would hold water. The old Econ101 hasn't been upgraded to include monopolization, oligarchy, etc.

I've never met a capitalist who was directed to "increase profits every year." The whole point is to maximize profit for the shareholders FOR THAT YEAR. If Chevron found that basketweaving could produce a better profit than oil extraction, then they would go into basketweaving.

You incorrectly assume that the oil guys collude with each other to set prices. I can assure you that they do not, with the exception being OPEC, which is just a portion of the world oil market these days. Any upstart with a more-efficient process will be delighted to undercut the market in order to grow and return a bigger profit to its investors.

It's true that we use less fuel in our cars today. All things being equal, that would put downward pressure on the world price of oil. But there are many, many variables involved; auto fuel efficiency is only one (and a small one). China has radically changed in the past decade and there are hundreds of millions of Chinese who are now middle class, with houses and cars like ours. The demand just keeps rising.

One final note: look at natural gas. Price in the USA in just a few years has gone from $8 to $2. Why wouldn't those money-grubbing capitalists just keep the price high and get all those profits? Because they can't control the price--supply and demand do.

Lets pick natural gas. We have had cheap N Gas for the last, say three yrs and my gas price hasn't gone down its gone up. Each year Fortis has gone to the Utility's commission and received their requests.Well if N Gas has gone down,if anything, give the industry the benefit of the doubt, it should have at least stabilized in the last three yrs.

"Intel is investing heavily (think gazillions of dollars and bazillions of engineering man hours) in resources to create an Intel host controllers spec in order to speed time to market of the USB 3.0 technology." -- Intel blogger Nick Knupffer